Peter Koning in USA Peter is a long time hot rodder and supporter of Let's Go Cruisin. He's left his business, Hoppers Stoppers in the capable hands of his staff to travel the US for 12 months. Sure makes some interesting reading!

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Home for Xmas

Hey there trendsetters, a quick up date from San Diego. This ones for tourists, no hot rod stuff.

Arizona

Spent about 5 hours driving the RV with car and trailer from Phoenix through south Arizona, via Yuma along Mexican border into Southern California. A lot of farms on the way, particularly where the Colorado river can be diverted to irrigation. They have huge dairy farms here but not like  at home. Here they keep all the cows in big pens, thousands of them packed in and use the land exclusively to make hay, which they crop all year around. Also many acres of cotton etc. Then into the hills to cross the divide into the San Diego area. A 4000 ft climb with the trailer had the V10 Ford working hard, sometimes flat out at 50mph in second gear but these things are industrial quality and are built to do it.
Found a nice RV park on the bay in uptown Mission Beach, this place would hold 500 RV's. When I arrived on Monday it was only 25% full so I was a bit confused  when they said they were almost booked out for the week but then Thursday here was Thanksgiving and by Wednesday night the place was packed. They all make a four day weekend out of it and have Friday off, big shopping events like our Boxing day with big discounts and people lined up at 4.00 am.  Now its Sunday and every one's gone again.

San Diego

San Diego is a nice place, been unusually cold right now and down to nearly zero at night,. Well set up for tourists as well as the local industry which includes some industrial as well as the Navy and Army. Spent a few days seeing the tourist stuff. They have the aircraft carrier Midway on display in the harbour,(1945 to 1993)  this ship is 1005 feet long, and around 4500 Navy/aircraft flyer guys would be on each sailing, They have it all set up for tourists including a couple of dozen older fighter aircraft on the decks. Took best part of a day to go over the whole ship. Also there were three Nimitz class Nuclear aircraft carriers over at the naval base, which they said was rare at one time.

Spent a day driving the coast, sight seeing, then yesterday took a bus tour. This was in three parts, a morning tour around the city and places like Coronado Island and La Jolla, which are very upmarket with lots of million dollar homes. Then a 1 hour boat cruise around the bay, followed by a trip across the boarder to Tijuana. Getting into Mexico is no problem, the Mexicans just let everyone drive in almost unchecked. Spent the afternoon in the main tourist street where we told it was safe to be, all the shops are arranged to get the tourist dollar, lots of junk but also some nice Mexican Rugs,  Pottery and Silverware.The shopkeepers know they only have one chance to get you in the shop to do the hard sell, and they hassle you relentlessly, making the Jamaicans look like amateur's. Big time bargaining required but be prepared to want it in the first place because once you make an offer its just a matter of the final price. If they let you walk out of the shop unsold then you have found the cost price or less. I got a few nice handmade things for family and friends, plus a $50 rip off of an Omega watch. The average Mexican makes 80 cents per hour so the conditions across the border are much worse than in USA, its a whole new world as you we go through the check point. Still it seems the Mexicans work hard to make a living, and want to improve their lot in life. But some very hard in an illegal way, yesterday they found a tunnel that went 1/4 mile from Mexico into USA, it even had a railway line built in to transport the drugs, they got something like a 2 tonnes of drugs this time but god know how much had already been shipped in.

Getting back into USA was not so easy, they took us all off the bus just before the border and we walked the last bit carrying all our souvenirs with us through US Customs whilst the bus goes through empty. Then we walk another bit into USA and back on the bus. Apparently something like 150,000 people cross back and forward each day, many Mexicans have approved jobs in USA and go home each night. It was Saturday and the line of cars waiting to cross stretched for many miles but the bus driver knew a short cut to the line which bypassed the 3 1/2 hour delay and got us through quickly. He made sure we knew the best places to shop but he seemed to be getting a kickback from the shop owners so we checked lots of places. And the Mexicans have this amazing way of knowing where you are from before you even open your mouth, they could tell what country you came from by your face alone, and NO, I wasn't wearing an Aussie Tee shirt.

Today went through the original "Old Town" section of San Diego, which is historic village where San Diego was founded. A lot like  Sovereign Hill.There is so much history here it would take years to learn. They moved the main business area a few miles away in mid 1800's closer the bay and port. Thus thats called "New Town".  San Diego has 1 1/2 million people in the city and 3 million in the  area so its not small. But Tijuana is 4 million in the city and 40 million in the area, makes Australia seem insignificant.

Anyway its time for a break from the hussell and bussell of USA, no car things for a few months so I'm coming home for Xmas on Tuesday.  Tomorrow I will put the RV and trailer in strorage here and drive Chevy  to LA where I will do the lock up storage thing like Charlotte. So I will be back home on Thursday.

Cacth up with you all then. Photos will folllow for those who can make sense of tourist stuff.
See ya soon.
Peter